Across the U.S. today, International Human Rights Day, faith leaders are gathering in vigils to “Shine the Light” on the need for comprehensive immigration reform. From the press release:

Diverse faith communities in thirteen cities are holding Posadas and prayer vigils during the Days of Action, in an effort to illuminate the plight of immigrant families and spread a message of family unity and welcome during the holiday season.

“Across the nation we are highlighting the plight of immigrant families who are suffering from fear and separation during this season of family unity and hope,” said Alice Linsmeier. “We’ve heard children say that the best present they could get for Christmas would be having their mommy home with them without fear of separation.”

The events culminate on December 17th, the eve of International Migrants Day, with a vigil at a church near the White House, when faith leaders will deliver prayer flags and signed postcards from around the country calling on Congress to deliver comprehensive immigration reform in early 2010.

“Before our neighbors took us in for sanctuary, we lived in fear and insecurity,” Patricia, an immigrant mother under an order of deportation, said through a translator. “As a family, we want to call for comprehensive immigration reform that can help us to have a better life so we can live with dignity and honor in this country, as children of God.”

Some of the cities hosting events today include New York City, Portland in Oregon, Seattle, and Chicago.
The NYC event (which I cannot attend thanks to Parent/Teacher conferences) will be at noon in front of the Varick Street Detention Center, 201 Varick Street, Intersection of Houston and Varick Sts, Manhattan.

As I tumbled yesterday in response to a link to a NYT article where faith leaders criticized health care reform for excluding immigrants, one of my concerns with the lead roll that faith based organizations taking such a lead role in the immigration struggle is how will this impact LGBT immigrant families and immigrant women. I reached out to the organizer of the NYC New Sanctuary Coalition, a main organizer of today’s event in NYC, asking specifically about the role that marriage equity plays in all of this. After all, marriage is just one way that many immigrant families stay together. I was told that with so many organizations in the coalition, veiws would certainly vary on this but that was not really part of the discussion. With so much emphasis on “family” unification, we need to get real about whose families/what type of families are really being included in the discussion of immigration reform.
I understand coalition work is hard and requires negotiation but in order to really impact change those negotiations should be about inclusion.

Image Via / North Jersey.com